All posts tagged ‘craft’

I was recently pointed to this interesting article from The Globe And Mail, Bucket list for kids: 50 things to do before they’re 12. I was happy to read through it and see that my 2-year-old had already crossed off so many items on the list, but in the end the GeekMoms and I just couldn’t leave it at that. We need a list of 50 geeky things all kids should do before they’re 12!

Build a robot (functional, cardboard, or otherwise)

Play with Lego bricks

Inspect something under a microscope

Tear something electronic apart

Learn to solder

Learn to braze

Write a “Hello World!” program

Play a musical instrument

Attend a con

Play an “old fashioned” video game before getting too jaded by modern graphics

To be sure, Detroit faces uphill challenges as it fights poverty, unemployment, and a shrinking population after the massive downsizing of the auto industry. In the media, we all see Detroit’s vast vacant factories, poor schools, and despondent people. Sadly, these stories become Detroit’s story. However, they are just some of Detroit’s stories. They do not and cannot define Detroit.

The Detroit I experienced is full of unbelievable potential. Its people are not defeated–just the opposite. Detroiters are on fire. They are fierce, quirky, diverse, creative, authentic, gritty, passionate, and proud. They love their city. In fact, they are reinventing it right now. Detroit is the epitome of toughness, standing tall in the face of adversity and emerging stronger than ever.

Downtown Detroit is beautiful. There is something about the color of the city at sunset that is unlike anyplace else. Just before the sun sinks below the horizon, the city glows as if each soul in the city lends itself to the effort. The art at the People Mover stops remind you that Detroit is, or once was, Motor City. The giant steel Joe Louis fist statue on Jefferson Ave. could not be more symbolic of Detroit. Quirky Greek Town sits as a tiny Vegas amid brownstones. Glowing yet tough like hot iron, Detroit feels like the heart of the Maker movement.

Downtown Detroit at sunset photo by Gina Clifford

Lish Dorset is an artist and writer, a self-described hybrid of Debbie Harry, Liz Lemon, and Martha Stewart, her youthful vibrancy and iconic glasses betray Detroit’s perceived gloom. She makes beautiful things by hand. At a time when President Obama is seeking to engage Americans to be makers of things instead of consumers of things, Lish is quietly being that symbol. She is fun, optimistic, and passionate about Detroit. Lish is one of the makers helping to reinvent Detroit. In addition to her maker skills, she helps run Handmade Detroit and writes for Craft Magazine.

Christopher Gorski loves cars. He also loves to draw. Chris bought an old step van, named it Leo, painted it, and filled it with his original designed and hand-drawn t-shirts. He sells his shirts under his own brand, Detroit GT as he drives around the city in Leo. Chris loves Detroit. He loves cars. He is Detroit. An entrepreneurial spirit unencumbered by doubt, Chris is part of the unique fabric of Detroit that makes Detroit, Detroit.

Barry Randolph is the pastor of Church of the Messiah on Grand Blvd. If you met Barry on the street, you might not guess that he is a pastor. He is tough-minded, outspoken, immediately likeable, and cool. You might mistake Barry for an entertainer or a motivational speaker. Without a doubt, though, there is not anyone in Detroit with more compassion for people. The Church of the Messiah welcomes everyone, regardless of economic, racial, or social background. Barry is featured in the movie Lemonade Detroit, a movie about the amazing entrepreneurial and creative spirit of Detroit’s people in the face of stunning adversity. Barry develops community programs, runs several community gardens, and houses a cool hackerspace in his church’s basement. View Make’s interview with Barry.

Barry Randolph with Erik Proulx Photo by Gina Clifford

Detroit gets to you. You go there and you change. Erik Proulx knows this. He visited Detroit and ended up making a movie about the amazing Makers who are reinventing their city. He called it Lemonade Detroit because he witnessed Detroit’s Maker culture first-hand. The people are not downtrodden. Hope is not lost. Detroit is alive and people are reinventing themselves and their city. They’re makers at heart who are making lemonade out of their lemons. The movie itself, a 17-minute short film, is an entrepreneurial effort. Most of the movie was made by film pros that volunteered their time on the movie. Now, Erik is working to raise funds to pay people (so they can eat) to make Lemonade Detroit into a full-length film. By selling each frame of the 17-minute film for $1 each, he credits donors as ‘producers’ on IMDB. Erik, a Maker himself, appreciates the importance of this movement. Watch the film and you’ll get it, too.

Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler commercial about America’s half time speaks directly to Detroit. It is not the end–it is a new beginning, and Detroit’s maker culture is in the driver’s seat. Detroit is an iconic American city re-inventing itself after the crash of the auto industry. Its people are optimistic, passionate, creative, and proud. If you visit, be sure to hang out at Motor City Wine on Woodward Ave.and say hi to Lish if she’s there. Get a shirt from Chris Gorksi, and visit Barry Randolph at the Church of the Messiah. Before you leave, watch Lemonade Detroit, and then donate a few bucks to the movie-your name in the credits is a great way to say ‘I’m part of the Maker culture’.

There are quite a few sets of instructions to be found on the internet when it comes to making freezer-paper stenciled items. The problem is that you have to look at quite a few of them to get all of the handy obscure hints that will make the project go from “meh” to “holy-cow-you-made-that-by-hand” amazing.

I did enough research on this before Christmas to learn at least one need-to-know tip per step. And, with all of the cool geeky designs out there, I KNEW I had to share with our readers.

I printed out a design I found online. You can also draw your own if you have an artistic talent. After your design is printed, carefully trace it with a Sharpie. This will make small details easier to see when they are traced to the freezer paper.

Cut two pieces of freezer paper that are approximately 12" x 12", if you have a larger design, feel free to use a larger paper size. Put the freezer paper down on your printed design with the shiny side down and the dull side up.

Using a craft knife (and a cutting mat) cut out the design. When you start make sure you decide if you are going to cut on the line, outside the line, or inside the line so the details are consistent. Also, it is easier to work from the inside out of more detailed patterns. Working from the outside in runs a higher risk of tearing your paper.

Ah-ha! This is where the second piece of freezer paper goes! Place the shiny side right next to the back of the fabric you want to paint (on the inside of the shirt, if that's what you're painting) so the paint doesn't bleed through.

Make sure there is no water in your iron and set to a medium heat. Put your new stencil on the fabric where you'd like the design to be. Place the iron directly in the middle of your design for a couple of seconds. Then, you can carefully move your iron around the rest of the design. Be sure to also position any extra unattached bits after the main paper is ironed on. Try not to iron longer than necessary, as it may discolor your fabric. When you can't lift the edges up with your fingernail, you have ironed enough.

Ignore the picture! I'm showing you what NOT to do. Painting was a harder lesson to learn then cutting and ironing. A couple of things to note: start with light colors first and work your way to the dark colors. I forgot here and had to fix my white part. Try to use your brush straight up and down and not in a brushing motion, brushing tends to work up the edges of your pattern enough to smudge it (sometimes).

When you rinse your brush between colors make sure to completely dry it. I made this mistake once and got a purple puddle instead of a cute elephant.

It takes several coats of light colors to cover fabric. It may only take one with darker paints.

Gently peel the paper off your design after it has dried and presto! You have a cool design! The garment will be fine to wash and will last for quite awhile if you wash it inside out. (all photos by Tim Post)

In September I attended a steampunk convivial in my home town, naturally this required creating a steampunk costume. For someone whose sewing experience at the point of buying my ticket consisted of reattaching a few buttons to shirts, that was a pretty daunting prospect. Thanks to YouTube, Threadbanger and a lot of time on Google, I eventually managed to create a costume that looked pretty good, despite my lack of skills with fabric and thread.

I began by trawling the internet for pictures of steampunk outfits. Naturally many were way out of my league, looked uncomfortable, impractical or simply showed off way too much of my skin – nobody needs to see my thighs or stomach thank you very much. Eventually I settled on an idea for my basic outfit; a long skirt or two, shirt, corset and waistcoat – that gave me some idea of what I needed to buy and what work would be involved.

The layered up thrift store skirts

Over the course of many weeks, I checked out my local charity/thrift stores. I was constantly on the look out for anything that I could appropriate into the costume. I came up trumps with two cheap skirts that I could layer up. Appropriate shirts and waistcoats were however, sadly lacking. As time drew on and I needed to get a move on, I gave up on finding anything second hand. A cheap high street store was selling grey waistcoats for the office and so I picked one of those up along with a basic white shirt that I knew could be altered. The only piece I spent significant money on was a corset. Although these can be made at home, for someone just starting out in sewing, the task was just too daunting. I justified the corset by buying a plain black one which I knew I could re-use for multiple cosplays and Halloween costumes. After playing around with the skirts, I determined that the lower brown skirt could be left as it was. The purple upper skirt just needed to be lifted in two places. I tested this by pinning some of the lower skirt up to the top with safety pins, to check how it looked, and eventually just sewed those spots together. This meant that the entire skirt section of the costume probably took less than fifteen minutes to complete.

The shirt was one of the bigger projects. I followed this project video courtesy of ThreadBanger to create a low boatneck and hemmed it using my sewing machine.

A few years ago I had inherited this very basic sewing machine from a family member and it had spent those years resting comfortably in a large drawer in my craft room, with me insisting to myself that at some point I would learn to use it. I didn’t even know where to begin and the instructions were rather useless – I think Egyptian hieroglyphics might have been clearer. Another quick YouTube search revealed a great video that talked me through the process of threading the machine and after practising with the machine on some old bits of fabric, I was away. The hemming could easily have been done with a needle if you don;t own a sewing machine, it would just take much longer.

The shirt, altered from a basic white office piece

I actually made a few personal alterations to the shirt in the Threadbanger video; for one I didn’t keep the shirt’s collar as I knew I wouldn’t be using that as part of my outfit. I also didn’t do the shirring as I had other plans for the cuffs and collar (plus it looked complicated!) After removing the buttons I dyed the shirt, along with a length of lace from a local craft & haberdashery store and some white cotton, in a bath of tea to create the vintage colour. I dyed them in an old pot on my stove for around twenty minutes then immediately transferred the shirt to my tumble dryer to let the heat “set” the colour a bit more. Over a few nights spent in front of the television, I replaced the buttons with some more appropriately coloured ones, and hand sewed the lace all along the collar and cuffs as it wouldn’t have gone through my machine, using the thread I had dyed in the tea so the colours would match.

Dying the waistcoat on the stove

The last piece of my clothing was the waistcoat. This had initially been a very bland grey, however as it was made of 100% polyester, a tea bath wouldn’t take to the fabric. Google found me a dye called “iDye Poly” which is specifically designed to dye polyester, I picked a pack up on eBay and it worked very well. Again I removed the buttons before dying the fabric in my old pot. Unlike tea, iDye Poly is a chemical dye and the smell was utterly overpowering, I had the door to my kitchen wide open and my extractor fan running for the whole half hour I was dying the waistcoat – the wooden spoon I used to agitate the water went out in the trash that night.This is not a process you want to be undertaking with your children around. A quick turn through my washer & then a tumble dry had the waistcoat dyed in around two hours. Sadly my pot was a little small and so it had dyed unevenly, luckily this wasn’t too big an issue with a vintage look like steampunk.

The waistcoat would be the top layer of the costume and so it was where I wanted to place most of the little embellishments that really make the steampunk look. I had bought some vintage-looking buttons to replace the original plastic ones but that wasn’t enough. I had looked around for some cheap cogs or gears but been unable to find any at a price I was willing to pay, however on attending a craft fair I found some small metal shapes – technically ship’s wheels – being sold for pennies and picked them up. I also found an old chain lying around the house and commandeered it for the waistcoat. The pockets on the waistcoat are fake, just a slit in the fabric, so this chain worked well to fake the pocket watch look. I sewed it inside the slit on one end, and connected the other to my newly replaced bottom button. I laid out the “gears” in a form I liked, and photographed it before sewing each one on individually with a very fine thread, using the photo as a reference.

The waistcoat: before and after

That about wraps up the clothing part of the costume, next week I’ll be covering the accessories including creating a unique necklace, embellishing a simple hat, creating some basic goggles and customising a Nerf gun. I hope you feel inspired to have a go at creating your own costumes, even if you’re concerned that you wouldn’t be any good. I felt that way too a few months ago and now feel much more confident about approaching sewing tasks.

My Halloween radar recently went off when I came across this great idea and I just had to share it with you all. Cheryl over at That’s What Che Said had the fantastic idea of buying soap, removing the label, and decorating it yourself. She tells you the how to at the link above. I ended up making some out of soap and some out of sanitizer bottles. Word to the wise, before you buy the soap/sanitizer, test the corner of the label and see how easy it is to get off. The soap and sanitizer at the dollar store was MUCH easier to get the label off of than the name brands. Guess they use cheaper glue.

Image Jennifer D.

Anyways, here are the ones we made for my daughter’s teachers. I took our idea a little further by printing out Halloween labels, cutting them out with my 2-inch circle craft punch, and tying it on with raffia. The beauty of this idea is that you can do it for ANY holiday or occasion. All you need are the soap/sanitizer bottles and stickers. What teacher doesn’t need sanitizer in the classroom?! Happy crafting everyone!

Wandering through the aisles of my local craft warehouse, I came across a styrofoam head. My daughter immediately said, “Hey, that looks like Voldemort!” Ah ha. My Harry Potter festivities would not be complete without a Voldemort. So into the basket went the head and into overdrive went my brain trying to figure out how to make this work. The easy part was decorating the head. I found a picture of He Who Must Not Be Named online and set to work drawing those lovely blue veins he has all over his head. I then cut his nose off with a knife and drew his famous snake nostrils. Next, I colored his eyes red and put snake like pupils in them. It was sufficiently creepy, but he had no body. Having never made a full size body for Halloween, I had not idea where to start. Then I stumbled across King’s Home Halloween Party Ideas. She had some fabulous ideas and responded to my email with even more great ideas. With her help, I came up with this for his body. Here is what you will need:

Decorate the head as described above. Next, straighten the hook on the wire hanger. My head had a hole in the bottom, but it was too big for the hanger wire so it wouldn’t stay on. I used duct tape to build up the wire and then crammed the head on until it was secure. Next I took the pool noodle and cut it with a utility knife so that the hanger bottom would fit inside. This will be his shoulders. I then duct taped the noodle to the hanger to help it stay on. I then cut several long lengths of fishing line and attached them to the hanger in various points to hold him up. Next, I found the middle of a black sheet and cut a hole big enough for the head to fit through. Of course, then the hole was too big and kept slipping off. So I used the black duct tape to tape the sheet around his neck. I haven’t actually tried to hang him with the fishing line, but it should work, right?

Moldy Voldy Image Jennifer D.

Now that he is done, I have had him in my closet. My husband has taken it upon himself to scare me to death with moldy Voldy several times now. The first time I was coming in the back door and it looked like a man standing there. Just this afternoon, he had You Know Who peeking through the window shade at me. I think I am going to have to hide it from him before he gives me a heart attack.

I love planning my kid’s birthday parties. It gives me an outlet for my creativity and I can be as crazy with paper, glue, and cardboard as I want. My daughter and I pick a theme several months in advance so we have plenty of time to make things together. It is great mother-daughter bonding time and we get to share our love of crafting.

This year, however, Geekette had to share her party with her new brother, who would be having his first birthday at the same time as hers. (They are 6 years and 6 days apart. No idea how that happened.) So the theme this year needed to be gender neutral, i.e. no princess party. Thankfully, Geekette saw the Star Wars movies last summer and had been waiting eleven months to have a Star Wars party. Her one stipulation: it had to be things from the original movies, IV through VI. Once I started doing my research for decorations I came to a sad conclusion: there were very few decorations out there that go with the original trilogy. In fact, I ended up having to make everything. So, if you are planning a Star Wars party and want to stick with the original movies, here are some ideas:

Cupcake liners and picks: These liners set our party’s color scheme. Given that there is a lot of black and white in the movies, these gave us some color ideas. So we went with red/blue/and silver/black. See the review by fellow GeekMom Patricia. I do have to agree with her that $12 is a bit steep for what you get AND when you bake dark colored cupcakes, the designs basically disappear. We did red velvet in the red cupcake liner and Chewbacca was practically invisible. I got my liners for Christmas, though, so I can’t complain too much. If you’re handy with Photoshop or other software, you could probably make your own using pictures and toothpicks.

Wookiee Cake: Since it was my son’s first birthday, I wanted him to have his own cake. It was going to be a Wookiee cake so I made a practice one that you can see here . For his official birthday cake, I baked a small 6″ cake, made the Wookiee out of modeling chocolate, being careful to thoroughly dust the counter with cocoa powder which kept it from sticking, and then went a little crazy trying to make his belt. For his ammo belt, I made some marshmallow fondant and colored it black and gray. To get the gray a bit shiny, I brushed some silver pearl dust on it. This was my first time using fondant too, and while it was easy to make, I think I got mine too dry as it kept cracking.

Star Wars Cookies: Since I love to bake, these were a no-brainer and so much fun! I also did some that I glazed in white and then drew characters on.

Birthday banner: Continuing with our color theme, I used a large vinegar bottle and a round lid from another bottle for templates and cut out 26 red and blue circles from card stock in two sizes. We used some acrylic sparkle paint to lightly decorate the dark blue. I got a fantastic Star Wars font, printed out the letters and then cut them out. We used scrapbooking adhesive to hold the circles together, punched holes in the top, and threaded some black ribbon through. I also learned how to install a font. Woot!

Fireplace cover: I like the idea of those scene setters you can buy, but they are so expensive. So I made my own, smallish one to cover our fireplace and give a nice backdrop for pics. This was so easy to do! I got a silver plastic tablecloth, found silhouette pictures of an x-wing, tie fighter, and the millenium falcon, printed them out, cut them out with an x-acto knife and rubber cemented them to the tablecloth. Then I hung it on the mantel. The hardest part of this decoration was the detailing on the x-wing.

Fireplace cover and banner Image Jennifer D

Personalized Door Signs: This was one of the tchotchkes that the kids got to take home. I found some Star Wars stickers at Hobby Lobby that were the old school characters. Using the same font as I did for the birthday banner, I printed out each guest’s name in Star Wars letters. I then glued their name to some see-through vellum with silver stars on it and glued that to another piece of card stock. I then put the stickers on the paper and used a paint pen and stencils to put silver stars all over.

Picture Backdrop: Yet another use for those plastic tablecloths. This time, I measured one to fit the size of my wall over the kitchen table. Once I had the size, I found various pictures of the characters online, printed them out and glued them to the tablecloth with rubber cement. I added the stickers I had leftover from the name plaques and the left over ship silhouettes. It looked fantastic with our cupcake display and gave us a great backdrop for pictures.

Cupcake stand, cupcakes, and wall backdrop Image Jennifer D

Cupcake Display: A long time ago, in a city far, far away I went to a Big Lots and got several deeply-discounted Martha Stewart cardboard cupcake displays. They were meant for the fourth of July, but I adapted them to a different revolution. Instead of the patriotic ribbon, I got some silver ribbon and used the included double stick tape to adhere it to the edges of the cupcake board. Voila! Instant theme appropriate cupcake display. My son got some darling Star Wars bath toys so we put the yoda on the top.

Kitchen Breakfast Bar: I ended up layering a red streamer and a blue streamer on the edge with scotch tape and then used the leftover pictures and ship silhouettes from the other decorations to give it a little pop.

Front Door: I printed off several of the vintage Star Wars masks and hung those on the door as well as the kid’s name signs that I talked about earlier. I drew eyes on Princess Leia so she wouldn’t look like a zombie, but most of them you could fill in the eye holes with black.

Vintage Star Wars toys: Apparently the Force was with me because a few weeks before the party my father-in-law came across a box full of old Star Wars toys that belonged to my husband and his brother. I spent several hours cleaning and regluing the decals with rubber cement. I used fishing line to hang some ships from our light fixtures. and added a few of the new action figures too. Then I arranged them on our buffet chronologically starting from Star Wars through the Return of the Jedi. The other parents launched into stories of their toys and what they had too and were just as excited as we were at finding them.

Wanted Posters: These I just printed and hung on the walls around the room.

Death Star Pinata: My daughter has wanted a pinata the last couple of years so I thought this would fit perfectly!

One last thing I made for the kids to take home were very basic Jedi robes. I found some cheap brown cotton fabric and using my daughter as a guide, cut it into a poncho shape. Basically, I draped it over her and cut a V where her head could come through. I know, I am a sewing goddess. Then I used jute string to tie at the waist. Super easy and very cute!

Light saber battle Image Jennifer D

The party was a huge hit with the kids and they had a ball beating fighting each other (outside) with the lightsabers than expected. I probably could have just not planned any other activities. Here are the links to the games and other things I made for the party. Enjoy!

Star Wars bowling pins: These were fun to make and the kids really enjoyed them. I used a Clone Wars ball I got at Target for the bowling ball and beans in them to help make them more stable.

Since we continue to be snowed in I have an all points bulletin out for things to do with my Geekette. She has been out of school since January 28th (one sick day the rest due to our mountains of snow) and everyone is getting on each others nerves happy to be spending so much time together. She loves crafting and this site recently came across my radar.

Cubeecraft (pronounced kyoob-ee) provides free paper craft toys! All you do is download, print on some card stock, cut, and fold. They are rated for difficulty with one scissors being the basic model and five scissors being the most difficult. Their newest creation is Mr. Spock. They have many kid friendly ones like Oscar the Grouch, Wall-E, Spider Man, Hello Kitty and R2D2 to name a few. There are also some that are not so kid friendly like Kane from Alien.

I foresee hours of entertainment without having to leave the house, at least until we run out of printer ink.

Cathe will be learning the Pokemon trading card game at Guardian Games on Saturday followed by a Warhammer date night on Sunday. It’s a gaming weekend!

This week Rebecca will be hosting a mother/daughter book club at her house for Nation by Terry Prachett. Rebecca and her daughter tend to pick more fantasy authors than the rest of their group, and Prachett is one of the best. The biggest dilemma is what snacks to serve…

Alexandra Siy sent in corrected galleys for her next book, which is titled, BUG SHOTS: The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly (she still needs to decide on the dedication). Then she went skiing.

Alisson is just back from freezing Manhattan, where she gathered heaps of information on how to geek your NYC trip. Look for posts soon!

Kathy Ceceri’s new book for Nomad Press, The Silk Road: Explore the World’s Most Famous Trade Route arrived this week. It’s her first as both writer and illustrator, and includes 20 crafts and activities for kids ages 9-12. Starting this spring, Kathy will be bringing her Silk Road craft programs to schools and libraries throughout the Northeastern United States.

Kris Bordessa finally got a copy of her friend Ruth Pennebaker‘s newly released novel, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough. Unfortunately, her husband deemed the book worthy of his attention (a small wonder, since he adamantly limits himself to non-fiction) and she continues to wait her turn to read the story.

Natania is just about to submit her novel manuscript, Pilgrim of the Sky, to her editor. Which is pretty exciting and in spite of a stomach flu that tried to kill her this week!

Brigid began her daughter’s education in punk rock music this week. Together they set upon iTunes in search of classic protopunk such as The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and The Stooges. Good times were had.

Patricia Vollmer, one of the newest contributors, has been spending this week attempting to de-clutter her life on two fronts. First, she has started going paperless by scanning in her bills and statements. It’s on her to-do list to scan in her kids’ schoolwork too, but that’s for later this month. So far, she seems to have 2011 and most of 2010′s bills and statements well in hand.

After the trick or treating is over, the decorations stored, and the costumes have been put away, we are left with one thing: tons of candy. We limit our geekette’s candy to one to two pieces a day, if that. The best thing is, she kind of self-limits. We have the candy sitting out in a plastic bag on the counter but she rarely asks for a piece. She forgets it is there.

So last year, round about August when another Halloween was rapidly bearing down on us, we found ourselves with a two gallon baggie full of candy. I started hunting around for something to do with it.

Turns out, there are quite a few options. Here are some things you can do with all that candy. The best part is most of the ideas can be turned into quality family time. Be sure and contact places to make sure they are accepting donations and keep in mind some Halloween candy has holiday specific wrappers so they may not be good to use for other holidays, or may expire.

Blue Star Mothers: our local chapter takes candy donations and put them in care packages for the troops overseas. Check with your local chapter and see if they take candy donations.

Ronald McDonald House: find your local chapter and see if they are accepting donations. Many of the kids and their families that are staying here don’t get to go trick or treating.

Local children’s hospital or nursing homes: head over to your local children’s hospital or nursing homes and your kids can reverse trick or treat. Rather than knocking on doors asking for candy, they can knock on doors and give it to the residents. They can even get some extra wear out of their costumes. Be sure and check with staff at the facility and get the OK before going.

Separate the items into plastic baggies and save for presents for teachers or others to whom you would like to give small gifts. You can decorate the bag with ribbons or a fancy paper tag.

If you are into cooking, save the candy bars to make candy bar piesor use them to top brownies or add them to cheesecakes for the holidays.

Save it for your child’s birthdaypinata. That way the other kids get to take most of it home.

Make Christmasdecorations. Use the particularly colorful candies and either string them together for a candy garlandor hang them with fishing line from the tree. You can also glue them to a foam wreath or Styrofoam tree shape to decorate your house or use them to decorate a gingerbread house.

These are just a few ideas to get your started. What do my fellow GeekMoms do with your candy haul?

If you regularly experience a need for more wide toothy grins, try SkullaDay.com

You’ll find skulls skillfully created from substances such as terra cotta, tape, tapestry, even tofu. Just about anything but the actual heads of humans. The site was started over three years ago by artist Noah Scalin, who made, you might guess, a skull each day. Many of those appear in Scalin’s book SKULLS, along with skull stories and a few skull projects to make on your own. The site continues on its merry smirking way thanks to submissions from skull-inspired artists everywhere.

Halloween is approaching and we bet many of you are combining your love of science with creative costuming. If you’ve created a science-themed Halloween get-up (past Halloweens or present) share your photo via Flickr with the tag “nsfsciencecostumes.” In the caption, include a brief description of the science facts behind your costume!

While cosplay and sci-fi costumes are great, NSF is specifically looking for nonfiction, hard science costumes. Just imagine: Schrodinger’s Cat, Euclid, or string-theory as costumes… I love it!

Okay, so how many of you thought cross stitching and rolled your eyes? How many of you don’t know what it is? What started out as something to keep me busy when I was twelve has become a form of relaxation for the past 25 years. When life gets crazy, I bust out a needle and thread.

Cross stitching is an endurance sport that takes minimal equipment. Endurance, because if you’re like me, you will set it down for months at a time and a sport because it involves physical skill. The good part is, you can pick it up right where you left off. The only equipment needed is a needle, thread, an embroidery hoop, and a pattern. Cross stitching is a form of embroidery where you make small X’s using thread called floss in fabric, usually Aida cloth. Aida cloth has evenly spaced, easily counted holes. The embroidery hoop holds your fabric taut and the pattern tells you where to place your stitches and what colors to use.

There are three types of stitching: free hand cross stitch, counted cross stitch, and stamped cross stitch. Free hand cross stitch is what my great grandmother did. She would use little X’s and make patterns like roosters or some other animal on her tea towels. I have never tried this one and somehow I think it would be more frustrating than relaxing.

Counted cross stitch either comes in a package with everything you need or, if you’re adventurous, you can buy a pattern book and get your own materials from a local craft or sewing store. You can also download a pattern from numerous websites. With the package deal, you get detailed directions, all your thread, your cloth, and even a needle. They think of everything. I prefer the package deal, but you can’t always find the patterns you want in a package…say, I don’t know, an 8×10 size Dora and Boots with your kid’s name on it. In that case I made my own pattern with software called PCStitch. I simply uploaded the image I wanted, the program converted it to stitches, and gave me a color palette so I could buy my floss colors.

Stamped cross stitch is the easiest of the three. As far as I know, it only comes in a package. The pattern you need to follow is printed on the fabric as well as on the directions. All you have to do is sort your colors, thread your needle, and get started.

The variety of patterns is endless and you are only bound by your own creativity. If your kids’ room is done in Star Wars, then craft a pattern with your favorite one liners or images from the web. This person did a baby quilt and on eBay there is a fabulous pattern with your favorite droids.

Image: keenah5 and eBay

Over the years I have done many counted and stamped cross stitch patterns: from a pillow to Christmas stockings to a baby quilt for my eldest. In my mind each item was a painting made with needle and thread. The best part about finishing a project is that it gives my children something that I can pass on to them. My great grandmother made quilts that we still use and I like to think that somewhere down the line my great grandkids will pull out that baby quilt and hang it on the wall once more.

I am a Halloween Geek. It is my favorite holiday, hands down. When my daughter turned three, I decided I would throw an annual Halloween party for me… er, I mean her. Each year we pick a theme and go crazy with it. This summer, our eldest watched the three original Star Wars movies. Being the daughter of a GeekMom and a GeekDad, she was instantly in love with all things Star Wars. When asked what she wanted her theme to be for Halloween, she threw it down. A Star Wars Halloween Party.

Not one to shy from a challenge, I told her I would shop around and see what I could come up with. I warned her though, that the characters she loved would be hard to find as most party supplies available are Clone Wars related. Here is what I came up with:

Snacks

The key to successful Star Wars snacks giving them creative names. For example, a bone-in ham becomes roast leg of Bantha. Womp rat casserole is really a potato casserole with chunks of chicken. Here are a few other examples of re-named cuisine with a Star Wars twist:

Sarlac Belly Beans: baked beans

Tauntaun entrails with blood sauce: spaghetti and meatballs

Leia’s garlic buns: use the garlic bread sticks you can get at the store and roll them into a spiral.

You get the idea. There are literally tons of pictures and ideas on the web.

Decorations

Decorating for your festivities requires a little more time. Here are some ideas to get you going:

Monster Mash Ups. I just got mine at Target. These are the coolest and would look amazing on your food table.

Carve pumpkins with Star Wars images. You can find patterns on the web.

This one will only work if it is still daylight out side or if you have a light outside the window. Get a black table cloth, poke holes in it, and cover a window: voila, space! Print out images of the Death Star, Millennium Falcon, X Wings, and Tie Fighters and affix them. Or if you have some laying around the house, hang them with fishing line.

Make your own Death Star pinata. If you can find Star Wars plates, more power to you. If not, use black plates with red and/or green plastic ware. Or you can do a Jedi table and a Sith table with corresponding color choices

Games

Light saber battles: To make your own cheap light sabers, take the tube inside of wrapping paper. Tape off the bottom quarter to make the handle and spray paint the rest red or green depending on your allegiance. Paint the bottom black. The Jedi whose light saber survives the battle the most intact is the winner. Depending on the age of the party goers, you could have them decorate their own light saber. If you want to make one that is a little more involved, say for a costume, check this out.

Pass the Death Star: Make a Death Star out of a large Styrofoam ball, silver spray paint, and a black sharpie. Play Star Wars music and have the kids pass the Death Star around. When the music stops, whoever is holding the Death Star gets “blown” out of the circle. The game continues until one person remains.

Meteor Shower: Get some brown balloons. Put a small toy/prize inside. Blow them up, tie them off, and add fishing line. Hang them at different heights around the room. The person who can make it through the meteors without bumping one wins the game. At the end, have the kids destroy the meteors and get the prizes inside.

Star Wars Bocce Ball or Destroy the Death Star: Paint a pumpkin to look like the Death Star. Be as accurate as you want. Get several of the small pumpkins (enough that each guest can take one home) and paint or tape an X Wing shape on it. Each child gets a turn to fly (roll) their X Wing and blow up the Death Star. The child who gets the closest to the Death Star wins. Make sure the kids are far enough back that it is not too easy.

A more intricate way to play Destroy the Death Star: Use a piece of plywood and draw a Death Star on it. Before painting it, put a small hole big enough for a bean bag. Decorate the Death Star. Have the kids take turns trying to “shoot” a bean bag through the “thermal exhaust port”.

Hopefully these ideas have helped get those creative geek juices flowing! Check out the Star Wars Halloween Round Up for more ideas to celebrate this most wonderful time of the year.